Davidson's Tea, anyone? Via Amazon.com?

I saw that Davidson’s sells bulk loose leaf tea via Amazon and was wondering if any of you have ever purchased tea from this supplier. I’m concerned about buying teas through Amazon because I remember someone advising that items purchased through Amazon may not be as fresh as items purchased from the supplier.

I have actually sold stuff on Amazon.com… so I am familiar with how their marketplace works (or used to work, it’s been a few years now) … I didn’t sell tea there, but, I sold other items. Basically, when something is sold on Amazon, Amazon immediately fires off an email notification of the item sold to the supplier, and the supplier fills the order. They are under certain requirements as to how the package has to be shipped and within a certain time frame. So, I don’t believe that tea is going to be any less fresh if purchased from Amazon versus purchased from Davidson’s tea directly … provided that Davidson’s tea is actually the seller on Amazon.

I actually ordered a batch of tea from Davidson’s on Amazon, the orange spice (not the herbal orange spice), and it was pretty darn bad. We actually dumped it out and used it as potpourri. Actually, I think part of it became foot bath tea as well.

Anyway, it was bad. My grandboss, Sandy, ordered a batch of their Organic Herbal Cranberry Orange, and it was drinkable iced with a few cups of sugar. If you added enough sugar, it almost tasted as good as kool aid.

It seems to me that certain Davidson’s teas listed on Amazon (the larger quantities) ship from Amazon, while some of the other sample-sized quantities ship directly from Davidson’s in Reno. I realized this when I was being charged two separate shipping fees by Amazon because some items were shipping from them and some were shipping from Davidson’s (even though it was all Davidson’s tea). I then changed my order to include only the items that were shipping from Davidson’s, and am happy with the product. Next time I will just order directly from Davidson’s website, but this time I was using an Amazon gift card, so I couldn’t. It is, however, strange that they don’t tell you the ounces of their “sample” sizes, only that it varies. My Assam Baspaty sample was 2.9 oz., while the Ceylon OP was 2.3 oz, neither of which I knew until I received it.